Thursday, April 4, 2013

Antidepressants Might Effectively Treat Chronic Pain

Recent research highlighted in NewsMax Health
shows that some antidepressants may help relieve chronic pain in cancer
patients. According to a study published in the Journal of the
American Medical Association, an antidepressant drug helped relieve
symptoms of peripheral neuropathy, chronic pain relating to nerve damage
in the limbs, in cancer patients. Out of over 100 patients who took
the antidepressant for over a month, 59% experienced some level of pain
relief, compared to 38% who were given a placebo.

Antidepressants are sometimes used to treat other ailments, such as diabetic neuropathy, fibromyalgia, and arthritic chronic pain. This information is especially important, considering that between 20-40% of cancer patients treated with certain drugs will most likely develop neuropathy.
All patients included in the recent study had persistent chronic pain
that lasted over three months after their chemo treatments had stopped.
According to the article, "of the patients given [the antidepressant]
first, the average pain score fell
by a point on a scale of 0 to 10. That's considered to be a "clinically
important" change." These findings might also suggest that
antidepressants might be an effective way to treat chronic pain from
other injuries, such as musculoskeletal pain or from a spinal cord/brain
injury.

Attorney Doug Stoehr is a personal injury lawyer serving Blair and the seven surrounding counties in central Pennsylvania. He takes cases for clients who are experiencing chronic pain as the result of an injury due to the fault of another. For more information on his Altoona, PA area firm, please call his office at 814-946-4100 or visit his website at http://www.stoehrlaw.com.